Robert Townsend

Robert Townsend was born in Downey, California in 1974. He paints highly finished images of the icons of an American Pop mythology. His unfailing eye for color and texture produce a vision of America’s material culture that vacillates between nostalgia for what is lost and optimism for the continuation of American ingenuity.

Townsend’s aesthetic draws heavily from his California upbringing and life in Los Angeles. Citing American painters Wayne Thiebaud and Robert Bechtle as primary influences, Townsend’s work is a mixture of pop, photo-realism, surrealism and representational interpretations of largely mid-century subject matter. His exceptional technical ability is complemented by a painterly approach to color and design, with occasional whimsical elements adding a playfulness to his skillfully crafted watercolors and oils.